The invention relates to a device for sterilizing the interior and the contents of sterilizing containers for medical purposes in an autoclave chamber structure by means of a vaporous or gaseous sterilizing medium which enters the interior of the sterilizing container during sterilization through at least one opening which is sealingly closable by means of a closure element constituting part of the sterilizing container in order to maintain the sterile condition after completion of a sterilizing procedure.
Sterilizing containers which generally have clamping devices as closure devices are known. The clamping devices are arranged on the bottom section of the container and engage by means of a hook-shaped clamping element recesses in the container lid, thereby sealingly fixing the latter on the bottom section when the closure devices are in the closed position. It is further known to provide detent elements, on the one hand, on the lid of a sterilizing container and, on the other hand, on the bottom section of the latter so as to establish a detent connection. The detent elements sealingly fix the lid in the detained state on the bottom section.
It is also known (German Offenlegungsschrift (unexamined Patent Application) 3,202,430) to provide sterilizing containers with additional closure devices which serve to automatically open and close, in dependence upon the temperature, an opening in the container, for example, by means of a bimetal element or the like, to, for example, allow condensate to drip off through an outlet opening at the bottom of the container. When the sterilizing container is located inside an autoclave structure, these automatic closure devices serve to open an opening during a certain phase of a sterilizing cycle and to later automatically close this opening again before the autoclave is opened so as to prevent new germs from entering the interior of the sterilizing container after the autoclave has been opened.
The hitherto known, automatically operating closure devices have not proven fully satisfactory in all cases. Firstly, the openings which are to be opened and closed by such closure devices can only be relatively small. Therefore, in some cases there is no guarantee that the objects to be sterilized, in particular, the medical instruments, are fully rinsed by the sterilizing medium circulating in the autoclave and that the germs adhering to them are reliably killed. Secondly, the bimetals used behave with considerable delay. Hence, in the case of hot sterilization, an extended cooling-off phase is required, to start with, and, even then, there is still no guarantee that the openings are actually completely closed when the sterilizing container is removed from the autoclave.